The first experiences with programming subject-matter

In order to investigate the substance of programming, its specific features and possibilities of application in the process of classroom instruction, one section of subject-matter was programmed according to the principles of B. F. Skinner, N. Crowder and S. L. Pressey. The article acquaints readers with the method of drawing up the programme, as it was worked out in programming a section of Czech orthography, and indicates the place of programmed teaching in the process of classroom instruction. Drawing up the programme consists in creating a hierarchical system of educational alms to be reached by pupils in skills and knowledge, in creating a system of assignments adequate to these aims, in the construction of steps the content and the sequence of which would correspond to the content and sequence of the aims and assignments, in experimentally fixing the frequency of assignments in the programme and in working out a suitable method of immediate confirmation. Programmed teaching does not exclude conventional teaching methods, but supplements them, making it possible to control the pupil’s own independent work. But it is not just one of the teaching methods, it has a wider significance. It brings suggestions for improving the quality of conventional teaching methods, because, by analysing the subject-matter, the aims and the media of instruction, which the preparation of the programme presupposes, it contributes to a deeper understanding of factors in the process of learning.